


Quilt

by Bouzingo



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, crafting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 16:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1233094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bouzingo/pseuds/Bouzingo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos did not count on the desert nights being quite so cold, especially when Night Vale is stifling during the day. Luckily, someone's got his back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quilt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AughtPunk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AughtPunk/gifts).



Carlos wonders about the state of the atmosphere directly above this hellish little town, because while he was on the verge of peeling off his labcoat during the astronomically hot day, the disappearance of the sun has brought an Arctic cold that permeates every inch of the the little suburban house he's to live in.

He'd turn up the heat, but the thermostat has been eaten by some kind of shadow squirrel and he's too tired to deal with that on his first night here.

He thinks longingly to the sweaters he left behind in Massachusetts, to the blankets and the jackets that wouldn't fit in his luggage anyway. His wistful midnight thoughts on warm clothes are broken by a knock on the door.

There's nobody there when he finally answers, properly equipped with a lab kit and a baseball bat. But all there is on his doorstep is a lumpy package with a note pinned on top.

After putting on his safety goggles, Carlos picks up the note with his lab tongs. The paper appears to be normal, but given what he's already observed in this town, chances are it's not. On the seemingly normal notepaper someone has painstakingly written:

_Nights get cold in our little town! I thought you could use this to stay warm._

Carlos sets the note aside, and begins to cautiously unwrap the package. Inside is a blanket, folded up several times and clearly handmade. It's positively beautiful.

In the better light of his bedroom, Carlos can better see the craftsmanship that went into the quilt. It's clear that fabric wasn't bought beforehand to make the blanket. None of the fabric matches except by colour schemes within motifs, and all the motifs are independent yet interconnected, ecosystems within a biosphere.

Carlos wonders who would have the eye and the patience to make something like this and then be willing to give it away to a total stranger. He doesn't wonder for long, though, because the quilt is very warm and soon he's asleep.

* * *

 

More than a year later, Carlos finds himself in Cecil's apartment. There's been a puppy infestation at Carlos' place, and it's not safe for him to stay.

Cecil's apartment is a cramped space, but warm, and filled to the brim with cross-stitch samplers, crocheted throws and quilts.

"Did you make these?" Carlos asks, scrutinizing one corner of the quilt that's been thrown over the back of Cecil's ugly brocade quilt. The fabric used there is midnight blue speckled with misshapen gold stars, the exact same fabric used in the central motif of the quilt he has at his house.

"Yes," Cecil says. "When I was in high school, I used to go to the Monday quilting bee with Old Woman Josie and I've kept up ever since. It's very calming."

"Then it was you who gave me the quilt on the first night?" Carlos says. Cecil shifts uncomfortably.

"Was it weird?" he asks hesitantly. "I'd noticed you had appeared to pack light. And I wasn't sure how warm labcoats are..."

"Well, unless they are the special thermal kind of labcoats that my colleagues in the Antarctic don, they tend to be quite thin," Carlos says. "I mean to say that the quilt is possibly the most thoughtful thing anybody has ever given me. And not significantly weirder than the background weirdness this town generates. So thank you."

They stand there in their stocking feet, generating enough heat from their faces that would probably render the quilts moot on any given Night vale evening. And then Carlos kisses Cecil, smiling a bit when their glasses clink.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bit of aimless fluff/worldbuilding for Hubris_and_Crafts, who is lovely and just great in general.


End file.
